Exit low building clusters, enter skyscrapers at Girgaum and Parel

SummaryThe skyline is set for a drastic change with the high-power committee for cluster redevelopment giving the go-ahead to two projects at Girgaum and Parel each.

The skyline is set for a drastic change with the high-power committee for cluster redevelopment giving the go-ahead to two projects at Girgaum and Parel each. All low-rises here would be mowed down to make way for skyscrapers.

The two projects, one by Nish Developers and the other by Shreepati Group, will be the first among several similar projects expected to come up on prime plots. The minutes of a committee meeting, released on Thursday, say the panel will forward these two proposals to the government for approval under the recently amended DCR 33 (9) that allows a higher vertical limit when building clusters in a minimum area of one acre are redeveloped.

Developers can profit by selling 55 to 80 per cent of the area used for rehabilitating tenants.

The project by Shreepati Group will see ground-floor to four-storey-high structures being razed and replaced by 15 to 45 storey highrises. A total 735 tenants from Pimpalwadi, Sukhanand chawl and Amarwadi at Girgaum will be rehoused in flats with a minimum area of 300 sq ft while the developer will make his profit by selling flats in two 50-storey towers. The project will now be forwarded to the urban development department.

At the 26,321 sq m New Islam Mill compound in Parel, Nish Developers will construct 22- to 50-storey towers. “It is a private mill and has been defunct for 74 years,” said developer Kailash Agarwal. The 650, second-generation workers’ families staying in 80 sq ft flats with common toilets will now be rehoused in flats of 300 sq ft.

In both projects, some flats will be handed over to the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority for public housing.

A third proposal, for redevelopment of Bhendi Bazaar by Saifee Burhani Trust, will be taken up again at the committee’s next meeting. While several have voiced fears that the mounting number of highrises will hit infrastructure, municipal commissioner Jairaj Phatak, chairman of the committee, said, “The developers will have to pay infrastructure charges which will offset the money spent on augmenting water supply and sewerage.”

He said the construction will contribute to the BMC’s coffers in terms of the octroi levied on the material brought in as well as higher property taxes.

Upgrade-IShreepati Group: developer RR ChaturvediArea: 12,318 sq m at Pimpalwadi (left) in Girgaum Now: 25 structures, up to G+4 Proposed: Rehab into one G+15, three G+22; besides one G+39, two G+45 for